Lower Performance in all games on PC after time

[stefanpavlovic9000]

I got my custom built PC about 3 years ago,

ASUS P8P67
Intel Core i5 2500 3.3 GHz
nVidia GeForce GTX 460 1024 MB
8 GB DDR3 RAM memory
1 TB HDD
120 GB SSD

Ran Insurgency, Saints row 4 and all source games on max, and even Amnesia The Dark Descent on max always over 60 fps, and now looking at fires and similar tense processes, my fps dips a fair bit, or even drops below 30. Changing settings in most games does no difference, and I even noticed some stutter in L4D2 when looking at a bunch of burning zombies. These are way too light games to be causing such framedrops. I have no idea what the cause of this is ( I know its not software though, I defraged everything, checked for viruses and weird programs and processes and still got no change), so I'm willing to bet it's on the hardware. But I just don't know what. I did dust it a few months ago. Which part is most likely to have degraded and is in need of replacement? I have been hearing some strange crunching and grinding noises in the computer at times is all I can say.

 

[Ralston18]

Do you have your data backed up.

The noises may be coming from the 1 TB HDD. Generally a sign of pending failure.

Also did you defrag the SSD? Not necessary and should not be done.

Backup your data and run the applicable software diagnostics provided by the HDD's manufacturer.

Be aware that anything you do may cause more damage and/or data loss.

 

[stefanpavlovic9000]

No I don't know hot to back it up and I didn't know a dying hard drive could cause fps loss

 

[Ralston18]

You have two immediate tools available: Task Manager and Resource Monitor.

Pick one and launch. Observe your system for awhile and explore the tool to become familiar with what is being presented and how to navigate around.

Leave the window open and slide to one side. Game as usual but continue to watch the tool. Look for changes that correspond to the fps loss.

Any activities involving the disk drive may be slowed if reading/writing to the drive is not as it should be. Sort of a data traffic jam....

Go online and look for tutorials on backing up data, "best practices", etc.

Also add your PSU to your system specs: Make, model, wattage, age, condition?

Have you recently cleaned inside your case and reseated the cables and components?